


Soundless

by Ferrero13



Category: Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Cuddling & Snuggling, Established Relationship, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-09
Updated: 2016-05-09
Packaged: 2018-06-07 10:16:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6799720
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ferrero13/pseuds/Ferrero13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Magnus is a loud person. His hair is tipped in fire and Alec’s heart pounds to the beat of his words. But seeing him laugh is like watching a silent film. It is quiet, intimate, and has the added benefit of being an experience that nobody else in this century has realised is more enjoyable than watching a film about runaway ice queens and singing trolls.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Soundless

**Author's Note:**

> Set in an ideal world where there are Shadowhunters and Downworlders but the only troubles worth talking about are relationship troubles. Of which there are none because this is an ideal world.

Alec doesn’t care much for movie nights at Magnus’ beyond the fact that they're at Magnus’ with Magnus. He wasn’t raised with entertainment that didn’t include exercising either his mind or his body (or both), so the very fact that people consider lounging on a couch watching a wall of tiny lights blink on and off a good way to pass time is a concept that Alec has difficulty wrapping his mind around.

When Magnus first proposed having a movie night, Alec just hummed and waited for Magnus to continue explaining what else a ‘movie night’ entailed. It was only when Magnus continued to look at him expectantly, eyebrows arched, smile fading, that Alec realised that Magnus’ plans ended at ‘sit on the same couch and watch the same film on the same screen’. He said yes.

The first time Alec came over for movie night, he brought a set of small iron spheres to roll between his fingers in case the film failed to keep him entertained. Which did end up being the case. But, beyond a disinterest in Disney classics, Alec also discovered that watching Magnus watch a movie is actually something that he can do for two straight hours without growing bored. In fact, movie nights these days consist entirely of Alec watching Magnus make his way through a movie collection that’s older than the ages of Alec and his siblings combined.

They don’t watch very many comedies, and even when they do Magnus spends half the time disparaging how forced the humour is. Alec personally can’t tell the difference between a romantic comedy and a romantic tragedy aside from the presence of either dead or dying people. Even then, his judging criterion isn’t entirely foolproof. There was that one comedy about a couple where one half is already dead, but not vampire-dead like Raphael or Clary’s friend. The kind of dead that for some reason feasts on human brains. It was disturbing. Alec is glad that no such Downworlder exists.

They watched a silent film once. Alec found that much more palatable than the riot of explosions that seems to accompany most modern films, but movie nights are for Alec to watch Magnus watch something else, so he lets Magnus pick every film after that and there’s never been another quiet night at Magnus’ on movie nights. Alec is okay with that. He’d rather lose himself watching Magnus enjoy himself than half-heartedly watch a film anyway.

Magnus has put on an animated film featuring a pair of sisters and a bunch of magical trolls this time. Alec is slightly disconcerted that the level of concentration Magnus is devoting to the movie rivals that devoted to summoning memory demons. Alec himself has given up making sense of the film and is currently diverting all of his considerable mental faculties to not moving the arm he has around Magnus’ shoulders for fear of distracting him. It’s not often that Alec gets the chance to see Magnus relaxed and warm and _comfortable_. There’s always some sort of emergency that needs Magnus’ attention. He doesn’t want to lose this brief period of calm when it’s so difficult to even get to this point on most days.

There’s hair in his face. It’s a brilliant blue today, like spun lightning, and it tickles Alec’s cheek with every breath he takes. Magnus doesn’t seem bothered that there are strands of blue dripping into his eyes, but Alec’s fingers itch to tuck them away behind his ears. There’s just something very intimate about being allowed to brush Magnus’ hair aside for him that Alec has never allowed himself to want before. So he does. He brushes Magnus’ hair away from his face, gently smoothing each strand down. Magnus tilts his face to press a kiss to Alec’s palm without tearing his eyes away from the film and Alec kisses the top of his head absently in response, fingers running through Magnus’ hair.

His eyes are lined with gold, shimmering like a sun sinking slowly beneath the gentle tides of an ocean. Alec can’t see his eyes—not from his vantage point with a cheek pressed close to Magnus’ crown—but he imagines that they burn as bright as molten gold. They always do, whenever Magnus drops his glamour. Where Magnus is the sun, bronze skin and bright yellow eyes, Alec is the moon, hair like the night and skin pale like a blanket of starbursts.

But Magnus isn’t always bright. He wears an awful lot of black for a person whose nails are often more colourful than Alec’s entire wardrobe. Nobody really notices because whatever colour his outfit of the day has is often bright enough to blind, and even his black clothes glitter a bit. Nevertheless, Alec thinks that Magnus can stand to be a little brighter, a little less sombre. Alec has found that there’s a direct correlation between how much black Magnus wears and how bad a day he’s had. He never wants to be the reason for anything but neon green pants and outrageously shiny necklaces. Never again.

(God, Magnus was wearing nearly all black the day Alec was supposed be getting married. His jacket was so dark it was barely red. Alec hates that he did that.)

Magnus has a hand hooked around Alec’s thigh. It happens sometimes. Alec never calls attention to it. It tells him that Magnus is comfortable with him, and lets Magnus know that this level of intimacy is also something that Alec wants. His nails are dark red today, just a shade deeper than blood, and it stands out starkly against his fingers. Alec tried to do Magnus’ nails once. It hadn’t ended well. Magnus laughed so hard that the only sounds he made were soft wheezing noises whenever he stopped laughing long enough to breathe.

It’s something that surprised Alec.

Magnus is the loudest person Alec knows. Everything about him screams of confidence and charm. He doesn’t shy away from colours that even Izzy has been known to shudder at, and his voice speaks straight into Alec’s soul. Every time Magnus shifts a little, his necklaces tinkle like wind chimes and his rings click together in a way that should be annoying but somehow isn’t. Alec can’t help but be swept up in the chaos that is Magnus Bane and love it.

There’s never been much reason for Magnus to laugh around Alec because half the time his parents are there insulting him, and the other half the time they’re too busy figuring out how they fit together to make time for jokes. When Alec imagined Magnus laughing, he expected it to be explosive and hearty, an extension of Magnus’ flamboyant self. He expected obnoxious clapping and feet stomping, the kind of full-bodied response that makes use of every glorious part of Magnus’ body, muscles bunching in both his cheeks and his arms. He expected an orchestra of sounds that are as loud as Magnus himself, and he expected to love it because there’s nothing about Magnus that Alec can bring himself to dislike.

Somehow, in all his imaginings, he never once stumbled upon the truth.

Magnus laughs like a silent film. The harder he laughs, the quieter he becomes. It’s not something Alec has observed in public. When there are people around, Magnus’ laughter is loud and boisterous like the rest of him, the sort of laughter that is exactly what Alec expects of him. What everyone else expects of him. But in private, when they’re curled up next to each other on Magnus’ couch watching a snowman sing about how much he loves summer, he’s all tiny giggles and trembling shoulders. His hand clenches a bit around Alec’s leg, and his hair dusts across Alec’s nose in time with the shaking of his shoulders. And Alec loves it.

He loves this moment. He loves this part of Magnus just like he loves all parts of Magnus, but this is special. This is something only those closest to Magnus see, and to be allowed this privilege makes him feel more important than he’s ever been told he could be. As a boy, he grew up in Jace’s shadow, always quieter, always less worthy of praise. It didn’t matter that he could handle a bow like he was born for it. He just wasn’t fast enough, wasn’t charismatic enough, wasn’t good-looking enough. He’s used to it. He doesn’t expect or need to be seen to perform his job, and he’s always thought he could live with that, could spend the rest of his life cleaning up Jace’s messes and playing uncredited supporting roles.

But then Magnus saw him. He saw him and found him the most interesting thing in a room that also contained Jace and Isabelle, and Alec can’t go back. He can’t forget the dizzy elation of being somebody’s first choice. He doesn’t always understand _why_ Magnus chose him, and they don’t always see eye to eye on everything, but there is one thing that they could always agree on: they are each other’s first choice.

Alec once spurned Magnus’ affections when he couldn’t come to terms with the idea that somebody could want him without also wanting something else, when he couldn’t accept that the Clave didn’t always have to be his top priority. Magnus would’ve been justified in refusing to take Alec back, but he did and Alec can’t love him enough for that.

So here he is, one arm wrapped around Magnus, the other picking up Magnus’ hand to trail fingers over the lacquer of his painted nails. The palms of his hands are softer than Alec’s, not roughened from handling a bow and the occasional Seraph blade. They spark blue when Alec aligns their fingers perfectly, and, as he pulls his hand away, wisps of blue smoke cling to the space between their fingers. Magnus hums contentedly and settles further into his embrace.

When Alec first found Magnus’ magic dancing across his skin, leaving pleasantly warm tingles in their wake, Magnus tripped over his usually eloquent tongue in his haste to assure Alec that he would try harder to hold it back. Magnus confided, uncharacteristically hesitantly, that his magic sometimes reacted to Alec in unexpected ways, and immediately assured him that there is nothing to be wary of, that its effects are harmless, that Magnus can and will control it. Alec was so delighted that he could make Magnus Bane, High Warlock of Brooklyn, lose control that he gave him blanket permission to let his magic run wild around him. So Alec sometimes wakes to blue flames licking his arm where he’s pressed up to Magnus, who is often still asleep at the crack of dawn.

It makes him feel special, something Alec never felt before meeting Magnus.

“Are you all right? You’re being unusually quiet,” Magnus says all of a sudden. His eyes peek up from under his lashes at him. Alec has a stray thought that the way they glow in the dark makes it very easy to find Magnus in the inky black of pre-dawn whenever he stays the night.

Alec snorts. “Me? Unusually quiet? All my life has been dedicated to learning to be unseen and unheard. What about you? All this noiseless sitting around seems really unexpected of you, Mr. Glittery Eyeshadow and Owner of a Night Club with a Very Punny Name.”

“That was a terrible insult.” Magnus grins. “And you know me, Alexander. I’m a man of surprises.”

“I know.” Alec runs a thumb across Magnus’ lips, and Magnus’ smile turns softer, more vulnerable, more intimate. And then, straight out of left field, Alec says, “You don’t laugh like you talk.”

Magnus raises a startled eyebrow. “What?”

Alec feels his cheeks start to glow uncomfortably warm. “I—I mean, when you talk, everyone hears you. You’re not necessarily very loud, but you have a…a very strong presence. You walk into a room and everyone stares. But when you laugh…it’s different. You don’t fill the room. I mean—you do. When there are other people also filling the room. But you never laugh like that here. It’s like you trust me to pay you enough attention that you don’t feel the need to call my attention with sound. That I’ll notice you straight away. And you won’t be wrong because I do. That one time I tried to paint your nails, you just sort of…shivered. A lot. But there wasn’t any sound. Do I make sense? Oh, angels, I don’t, do I? I shouldn’t have said anything. Forget that. I—”

“You make this funny snorting sound when you laugh,” Magnus volunteers abruptly, wrapping Alec’s arms around him, magic creeping up both of their sleeves.

“I, um—what?”

Magnus tucks his head under Alec’s chin, staring straight ahead stubbornly. His ears are suspiciously red. “Sometimes when you laugh you snort. Like you’re trying to stop laughing but it just comes out anyway. I like it, that you let yourself laugh like that with me. You chuckle a lot, but that snorting thing—that’s not especially common. It’s nice.”

“Oh. I—didn’t know I did that. That doesn’t sound very nice though, all that snorting. It must be quite annoying.” Alec tightens his grip around Magnus, who responds by slipping his arms around Alec’s waist.

Magnus huffs. “Well, it isn’t. It’s very nice. Are you saying I have terrible taste?”

“You? Not at all.” Alec eyes Magnus’ bright purple shirt with wide, earnest eyes that somehow seem to convey the exact opposite.

“You’re a terrible liar. And I’ll have you know that my taste in men is impeccable.”

“Your taste in women is very questionable, though,” Alec points out.

Magnus rolls his eyes. “I thought we agreed not to bring that up. That was _once_.”

“I don’t know, Magnus. The fact that your latest choice is me doesn’t exactly help your argument at all.”

“Alexander, we’ve been through this. You’re a fantastic choice—I’ve never made a better decision in my life. Now shut up and let me watch these trolls sing about setting up an engaged woman with their adopted son.”

“This movie is getting more bizarre the more I hear about it. Isn’t it a children’s movie? That’s not the kind of thing I expect Mundane children’s movies to promote.”

“It’s okay if it’s true love,” Magnus just hums, snuggling deeper into Alec’s arm.

“Well. I guess if you put it that way…” Alec presses his face into Magnus’ hair. They've never actually brought up the topic of loving each other before, but... “I guess if you put it that way, I want to let you know that it’s okay to continue laughing silently here, when you’re with me. I’ll always notice you.”

Magnus seems to freeze for an inordinately long time. Alec is beginning to regret saying anything at all when Magnus says, “You can make as many ugly sounds as you want when you laugh. I’m too enamoured with you to find them anything but endearing anyway.”

The movie is only starting to reach its climax, but they spend the rest of the movie ignoring it, blue fire tracing patterns across Alec's skin.

Alec snorts when he laughs, and Magnus’ laughter is soundless, and it’s perfect.

**Author's Note:**

> (It's true love.)
> 
> I don't really like Frozen all that much, but I did find the part where Anna completely dismisses the very idea that there can be any part of Hans she doesn't like because it's _true love_ very interesting. I mean, Hans is obviously not a case of "true love", but what if he were? Would that really mean that every part of him is equally loved? I'm not exactly an idealist, but it's very tempting to apply this to Malec, so I did.
> 
> I wrote this mostly because I don't make a sound at all when I laugh. It's really weird. Just this weekend, my entire family was roaring with laughter around me and all of a sudden I realised that I was the only person not contributing to the sounds at all. It made me wonder if there are others like me, and what if one half of my OTP was as unexpectedly quiet in this aspect as me too.
> 
> Feel free to point out any mistakes. I will rectify them at the soonest convenient moment.


End file.
